has anyone else tried Lloyd Walkers latest tweak

If in fact the crystal works by "reducing the EMI/RFI and static electrical noise at your cartridge and record while it is playing," as stated at Mr. Walker's website, a point that occurs to me is that it is likely to not be as effective with high output cartridges as with low output cartridges.

That is in part because in the case of low output moving coil cartridges the inductance of the cartridge and the capacitance of the cabling and phono stage input form a resonant peak at RF frequencies, which will greatly increase sensitivity to some of those frequencies. And it is also because the bandwidth of LOMCs generally extends to much higher frequencies than the bandwidth of high output cartridges.

The results can also be expected to be phono stage dependent, because the effects at audible frequencies that will result from RF frequencies that are input to the phono stage will vary greatly depending on the design of the particular phono stage. And also, for that matter, depending on the value of the load resistance that is being used.

Regards,
-- Al

08-17-13: Geoffkait
Al, interesting theory. It's also possible the crystal does no such thing and is simply a very efficient vibration absorber. If it were absorbing RFI/EMI I imagine the crystal would have to attract the offending electromagnetic fields like a magnet. No?

Geoff, yes it seems conceivable to me that vibration absorption could be a key factor that is involved. And perhaps also its effects on tonearm effective mass, which of course can make a difference even when tracking force is adjusted to remain constant.

But note that the RFI/EMI/static theory is not mine. I quoted that explanation directly from the Walker Audio website. And note the "if in fact" wording at the beginning of my post.

I myself take no position on how it may work, or even if it works. But if it does work via the electrical means that are stated at the Walker Audio site, I believe that its effectiveness would vary considerably as a function of the various dependencies I cited.

Regards,
-- Al

Perditty, I suspect that what is behind the confusion in your exchanges with Benjie is that your 8-19-13 post gives the appearance that all of the post is being addressed to him, but you probably meant only its first sentence for him.

Regards,
-- Al

Bruce, check out the Nagra amplifiers linked to near the bottom of this page. :-)

Lew, Benjie, et al, my initial post in this thread, dated 8-17-13, quoted in its entirety the explanation provided at Mr. Walker's website. Which was that it works by "reducing the EMI/RFI and static electrical noise at your cartridge and record while it is playing." Not sure what the point of calling him would be.

The only comments I can offer are the ones I stated in that post and the one I provided the following day in response to Geoff.

Best regards,
-- Al

Benjie, I've never known a little humor, such as Bruce often brings to these forums, to be either stupid or harmful.

Regards,
-- Al

Lew & Al (Rodman), regarding the function of crystals in early radio equipment, you're both right, but you are referring to two different applications. And to some extent to two different eras.

Crystals were (and still are, in some applications) used to control the resonant frequency of tuned circuits, such as RF oscillators. While in the earliest days of radio, and later in radio hobby kits, they were used as detectors/demodulators, where (as Rodman indicated) their rectification properties were used to extract the audio information carried on AM (amplitude-modulated) radio signals.

Regards,
-- Al

You're welcome, Rodman. In connection with the mention of crystal-controlled oscillators in my post, I should of course also have mentioned the billions of quartz controlled watches that are out there.

Regards,
-- Al